Students, faculty and staff may pay their respects to Saint Mary's sophomore Ziqi Zhang, who passed away Oct. 18, on Wednesday during a public visitation with her family, according to an email to all College students Monday afternoon.
Zhang, 19, died from injuries sustained in a car-bicycle accident outside the entrance to Saint Mary's at State Route 933. A resident of Regina Hall, Zhang was a dual-degree student majoring in mathematics at Saint Mary's and taking engineering classes at Notre Dame. She was a resident of Jiangsu Province in China.
Her parents, Ruicheng and Yongli Zhang, traveled to Saint Mary's from Xuzhou, China, last week. They arranged for a public visitation Wednesday at Kaniewski Funeral Home from noon to 2 p.m. The funeral home is located at 3545 North Bendix Drive in South Bend.
Shuttle bus service will be available to students and will depart from the front of Le Mans Hall at Saint Mary's, the email stated. The bus is scheduled to leave every half hour between 11:45 a.m. and 1:15 p.m., and it will return to campus every half hour between 12 and 2 p.m.
A memorial fund has been established for Zhang's family, and contributions can be made by sending donations to Karen Johnson, vice president for Student Affairs, Saint Mary's College, 175 Le Mans Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556. Checks should be made payable to Saint Mary's College and indicate in the memo line the donation should be directed to the Ziqi Zhang family.
College President Carol Ann Mooney expressed her sympathy last week during a memorial service for Zhang Oct. 23 at Regina Chapel.
"Each of us has lost a sister," Mooney said. "It is terribly difficult to lose a young person with so much talent and so much promise. Ziqi's death leaves a hole in the Saint Mary's community.
Mooney told the crowd gathered at the memorial service that the College would welcome the Zhang family to the best of its ability.
"For her family, this is an unspeakable grief," she said. "When they arrive on campus, we will make every effort to let them know how valued Ziqi was, what a positive contribution to Saint Mary's she was and that she had a home here."
